Checking for Monsters
by DreamingPolly
Summary: Two brief pieces about the hiring of Danny Messer. Oh, and Stella discovers something amusing.


**Title:** Checking for Monsters

**Summary:** Two brief pieces about the hiring of Danny Messer. Oh, and Stella discovers something amusing.

**AN:** The first of many collaboration pieces by two sisters, these were born on two separate occassions as a result of a wonderful thing called 'tidbit time,' which is essentially a 15-minute fic challenge between the two of us. It's a great deal of fun, and we've recently decided to post them. As always, feedback is appreciated.

**Disclaimer:** The characters within this fic are not ours. They belong to someone else, and we're just playing around for our own enjoyment. We promise to give them back later.

* * *

Mac frowned. He was standing just outside the door to his office, and didn't really want to go in. Stella rounded the corner, discussing evidence with Flem, some detective newbie whom Mac hadn't worked with yet.

Wait. Or was it Flick?

"Shall I check for monsters?"

Mac spun around to see Stella directly behind him, Flick not far away. "You know, I'm not far from taking you up on that."

Stella chuckled. "I'm sure it won't be that bad ... the last one wasn't so terrible, was he?"

Mac narrowed his eyes. "He kept gum in his shoe, Stella. In his _shoe_. I'm not giving this job to somebody who keeps food in their footware. That's just weird. And the one before that -"

"When are you supposed to meet?" Stella interrupted.

"Seven minutes ago."

Stella put her hands on her hips. "Is he already in there?"

Mac nodded. Flick moved over to the small window into Mac's office and peered inside.

"He looks all right to me," said the dark-haired detective. Stella joined him at the window and nodded in agreement.

Mac sighed and looked in. The subject of their attention was balancing a pen on its end in the palm of his hand.

"Oooh," Stella said gleefully, "He almost had it that time!"

"Very impressive," Flick decided. Mac rolled his eyes.

"You should hire him," Stella suggested. Mac turned to face his friend.

"No."

"You haven't even talked to him. He could be the Sherlock Holmes of the modern world!"

"Holmes had a drug addiction," Mac pointed out.

Flick leaned back against the wall. "Sure, but he had excellent observational skills."

"He could tell just by looking at you whether you'd dunnit," Stella grinned.

"And he always knew when people were talking about him!" someone added helpfully from on the other side of the door.

Mac entered his office and began the interview, the laughter of Stella and Flick drifting down the hall.

* * *

Stella was staring intently at the lab, a bemused expression on her face. Mac, about to walk past, followed her gaze until he saw Danny hunched over a table. His glasses were sitting neatly by his elbow, and he was peering at crime scene photos with his nose almost touching them.

Mac looked quizically at Stella.

"I think you made a good choice, hiring him," she said. "He's really amusing."

"How so?" Mac asked, looking back at Danny.

"Do you have a few minutes?"

"He has that many amusing qualities?"

Stella laughed, flipping curls back from her face. "Not as far as I know," she said, "but if you wait around for a bit, you might see one of them."

Mac had a brief battle with his curiosity and lost. He stood beside Stella and waited. Just as he was about to give up and move on - he had work to do, after all - Danny's hand suddenly snapped up and he groped for his glasses, sliding them onto his face.

"Here it comes," Stella said quietly.

Danny's voice drifted out of the open lab door. "It must have been Malone. There's no other way his fingerprints could have gotten there!"

"Is he talking to himself?" Mac asked with some trepidation.

"Yep," Stella answered.

Danny was speaking with more and more animation, pacing as he gestured eloquently at nothing.

"Great," Mac said. "Maybe I should have hired the guy with gum in his shoe after all."

"Ah, come on," Stella said, shoving him lightly. "It's cute. And you'll never have to ask him to share an opinion. Besides, it's not like he hears voices. He's just talking to himself."

"Have you asked him?" Mac said drily.

Stella quirked an eyebrow at him and strode toward the lab door.

"Just a minute," she called over her shoulder.

"Stella ..." Mac said, suddenly nervous.

"Hey!" Stella said loudly over Danny's monologue. Danny jerked around, looking surprised.

"Yeah ...?" he answered.

"It's Danny, right?"

"Yeah ..." Danny said again.

Mac covered his face with his hands.

"Your supervisor and I were just wondering something," Stella replied, smirking over at Mac. Danny frowned, glancing back and forth between the two of them. Stella, Mac decided as he gave Danny a small wave, had an evil sense of humour.

"We couldn't help but notice -" Stella started, but Mac didn't wait any longer. He paced away from the door, attempting to put as much distance between himself and the situation as possible.

"You WHAT?" Danny's voice echoed down the hallway.

Mac made it - barely - to the safety of his own office before he finally broke down and laughed.

END


End file.
